Greens bid to crackdown on political donations passes lower house

Tasmanian state politicians will be forced to disclose far more of the donations they receive under a Greens bill which has passed the House of Assembly. How it will work.

Greens leader Rosalie Woodruff speaks to the media in parliament Square in Hobart on Thursday, November 21, 2024.

Tasmanian state politicians will be forced to disclose far more of the donations they receive under a Greens bill that has passed the House of Assembly on Wednesday.

Donations of more than $1,000 will have to be made public within a month of being received under the Electoral Disclosure and Funding Amendment Bill, which passed on Wednesday afternoon.

Greens leader Rosalie Woodruff told parliament Tasmania currently operated under federal laws which concealed the origin of donations less than $16,000, and only once a year.

The threshold is set to drop to $5,000 next year but Tasmania would still have the laxest disclosure regime in the nation, Dr Woodruff said.

Greens leader Rosalie Woodruff speaks to the media on Parliament Lawns in Hobart on Thursday, November 21, 2024.

“No longer will we be the parlous state that has the worst donation laws in country. This is a big step for Tasmania in the right direction,” she said.

“The Greens have been campaigning for these particular reforms for years, and it is because we’re in a power-sharing parliament that there’s a possibility of these things happening.

“We’ve seen the Liberals back down on their policy to bring in mandatory precommitment pokies reforms and we know there’s been pressure from the gambling lobby.

“But what we don’t know is how much money they got in donations.

“These are the things that are basic to a healthy democracy.”

Attorney-General Guy Barnett said the government believed the legislation was “not necessary”.

Attorney-General Guy Barnett speaks to media at Littlewood Berry Farm Richmond with Leader of the Opposition, Peter Dutton. Picture: Linda Higginson

“Our government considered the current donation disclosure of $5,000 is measured and appropriate,” he said.

“A lower threshold may discourage people from participating in the political process by way of donations.

He said lowering the threshold would create “a significant administrative burden” and

tried to insert a last-minute amendment into the bill for the major parties to get $400,000 lump sum payments to costs.

He said the figure was based on “feedback from various political parties”.

Dr Woodruff said it sounded a bit like “snouts in troughs” and the proposed amendment was withdrawn.

Labor’s Rebecca White said her party was happy to support the legislation.

Rebecca White. Picture: Chris Kidd

“This bill is an example of the parliament working well together,” she said. “I hope this is the start of further reform.”

Dr Woodruff said she would like to see reform of the state’s electoral laws go even further.

“We’ve still got a long way to go: we still don’t have tax on donations, we don’t have caps on how much you get spent in elections, we don’t have public funding of elections, we don’t have truth in advertising laws.”

The legislation will be considered by the Legislative Council when parliament returns next year.